A very wealthy woman adopted the custom of donating money to the yeshivah (rabbinical school, Jewish seminary), on the condition that someone there recite Kaddish (a prayer recited by close relatives of a deceased person) for the souls of those who had no one to say it for them. The rabbis of the yeshivah appointed one of the students to recite Kaddish for those departed souls.
After some time the woman’s husband passed away and his business suffered greatly without his leadership. Things became so bad, that the wealthy woman was forced to close the business down. Without an income, her wealth soon disappeared. As time passed, she was faced with a new problem. Her two daughters had reached marriageable age, but she had no money for their dowries?
The mother and her daughters gave up a lot and accepted their hardships, but there was one thing that the woman was not willing to allow. The saying Kaddish must not stop just because she could no longer donate money to the yeshivah. In great bitterness of spirit, she turned to the rabbis of the yeshivah, pleading with them to continue the Kaddish custom until her fortune turned and she would once again be able generously donate as she did in the past.
The rabbis of the yeshivah, moved by the widow’s sincerity, agreed to do as she asked. The promise filled her with great happiness. She left the yeshivah and started for home with a light heart. Her poverty did bother her so much as she felt that as long as Kaddish would be said, she felt she lacked nothing in this world. She decided that she would place her trust in the Holy One, blessed be He would help her find a way to care for the needs of her two daughters. She whispered a prayer that the merciful Father of Orphans and the Compassionate Judge of Widows would surely see their poverty and supply them with suitable bridegrooms and all their needs.
One day, as the woman stepped out into the street, she saw an elderly Jewish man coming towards her. His beard was full and white, and his face shone with a special brightness. She was startled by the warm greeting from the strange old man. The woman was taken aback when the old man began talking to her about her situation and that of her daughters.
The woman told the old man about her fall from wealth to poverty, to the point that she lacked the means with which to marry off her daughters.
“How much do you think you need for their wedding expenses?” the old man asked.
“Why are you concerned?” she asked. “With all due respect, why do you wish to know?”
The man old man asked her again about wedding expenses and the woman reluctantly gave him an estimate. The old man tore a page from his notebook and wrote instructions to the local bank to pay her the amount she needed.
Since this was a very large sum of money, he suggested to the astonished widow, it was preferable that the note be signed in the presence of witnesses. They would see with their own eyes that he was signing over the money, and would add their own signatures to that effect.
Shocked and shaken, the widow went to the yeshivah to ask that two students witness the old man’s signature on the check. After signing the check, he handed the check to the woman with instructions to cash it at the bank the next morning.
The widow was confused and tried to understand why the old man had, a complete stranger, saw fit to pay all the wedding expenses for her two daughters?
The next morning the widow went to the bank to cash the check. When the bank clerk read the check, he stared at the widow in amazement. He looked at the check again, then again at the widow. In some confusion, he asked her to wait. Check in hand, he went into the manager’s office.
The bank manager took one look at the check and fainted. A sense of distress and confusion erupted throughout the bank. The clerks, hearing of the incident, hustled the widow into a small room and stood guard over her to make certain she did not leave. Clearly, something was wrong.
When the manager regained his composure, he demanded to see the woman who had brought in the check. She stood before him, trembling, as the bank manager demanded an accounting of how she had come by the check.
“I received it just yesterday from a very respectable elderly Jewish man. There were two witnesses to his signature, too,” she fearfully offered.
“Would you be able to identify the man who gave you the check, if you saw a picture of him?” the manager asked.
“Of course I could, and I have no doubt that the two yeshivah students who witnessed his signature could identify him as well.”
The manager reached into his desk and pulled out a small worn picture.
“Yes!” The woman beamed. “That’s the man. He’s the one who so generously gave me the check.”.
Slowly, the manager turned to his clerks. “Give this woman the money,” he ordered. “And then let her go.”
It was only after the widow had left that the bank manager slowly told those present what had happened.
“The man who gave that woman the check,” he said, “was my father who passed away 10 years ago. Last night, he appeared in a dream and told me these words: ‘Know this. Since you turned away from the faith of your family and stopped reciting Kaddish for me, my soul found no rest until this woman, this widow, came and arranged that Kaddish be said for those who have no one to say it for them. The Kaddish they said for me in the yeshivah, on that woman’s instructions, led to peace for my troubled soul.’
‘”Tomorrow morning, this woman will appear in your bank with a check that I have given her to cover her daughters’ wedding expenses.”
“When I woke up this morning, I was shaken by the dream. I described it to my wife, who just laughed. When the woman appeared with the check, I realized that the dream had come true.”
The bank manager’s life was never the same. He repented and found his way back into the ways of the Jewish faith.
Our brothers, who practice kindness, sons of people who practice kindness, about whom it says, “I have given him [Abraham] special attention so that he will command his children and his household after him… to do charity and justice” (Genesis 18:19). May G-d, the Master who repays, reward you for your kindness. Blessed are You, G-d, who repays kind deeds.
Kesubos 8b
May all your tales end with Shalom (peace)
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Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation. (Joel 1:3)
